The Protector of the Forest
by MinnewaReynolds
Summary: 19 years after the end of the 4th great shinobi war, the new hokage Naruto Namikaze finds a 12 year old child and takes him in as his disciple. This is a story of the young ninja's life and how he finds his friends and becomes a strong shinobi.
1. Chapter 1

**Writers Note:**

**This is my first submission as a fanfiction writer, I do believe much in the story I am writing here. I think a lot of people will really like it and I hope you do as well. Any criticism is highly appreciated I hope you like it and enjoy.**

**I do not own Naruto, and never will.**

_The Protector of the Forest_

Naruto Namikaze, who used to be named Naruto Uzumaki, had finally taken up his name and was now at the age of 22. A lot had happened since the end of the 4th great shinobi war, and since he ended both Madara and Obito's life. The final battle had been a long and difficult one. After Naruto took down Obito, and Sasuke had taken down Kabuto with his brothers help of course, they reunited to fight an enemy that was a greater problem than their own feelings at the time. They fought against Madara, in one of the most glorious battles anyone had ever seen. Naruto and Sasuke moved as if they had known each other their whole lives and after a near defeat at the hands of Madara, Naruto and Sasuke drew him into a trap and Sasuke trapped Madara allowing Naruto to detain and seal him. Naruto and Sasuke let go of their hatred for each other that day and ended up laughing together after the battle. Lady Tsunade ended up living through the battle thanks to her outstanding healing ability and the world turned peaceful for many years.

"7 years huh?" Naruto said to Sasuke as they walked to Tsunade's office. The two had grown much in this time. Naruto now looked more and more like his father Minato his hair had grown longer and his smile was a little less childish and a little wiser. Sasuke had grown up a lot since the battle with Madara. He had started a custom of meditation to allow him to keep his cool and his rationality.

"Yea, its hard to believe that we have been at peace for 7 years now. How are things at home?" Sasuke asked. They used to hang out all of the time but recently they have been busy with their own problems.

"Well…I mean she found out that she is pregnant yesterday and im happy about it but truthfully I'm scared." Naruto said. His eyes were in shock, he was thinking about how terribly mean she could be now, what would she be like if she was going crazy because she was pregnant.

Sasuke winced. "That sounds very unpleasant Naruto, you picked Sakura that's all I have to say about that one." Naruto and Sakura had started dating around 5 years ago after Sasuke got back Sakura realized that her feelings toward Sasuke were nothing more than an illusion by her younger self. She found herself intoxicated with Naruto and they dated for a long time. A year ago Naruto had popped the question to her and they had married very happily. However his peace wasn't going to last long, Sakura had started talking about having a child and Naruto could feel his life slipping away from under him.

"Shut up Sasuke, I never expected you to be so uncaring with the wife you have." Naruto pouted as Sasuke sighed.

"Hinata is Hinata and I am me," Sasuke said smiling his devious smile at Naruto. "At least my wife doesn't hit me all the time." Sasuke burst out in laughter at his own comment. No one would ever understand the jokes that Sasuke laughs at but most people were scared of him so not many people commented on it. Sasuke had started dating Hinata 4 years ago, at the end of the war Hinata had confessed to Naruto and they had a huge talk about it, as Naruto explained his feelings for Sakura and how they would never be due to what he wants in his future wife. Hinata reluctantly understood and it took her a very long time to find love again. 4 years ago Hinata and Sasuke had seen each other in a clan meeting and they started talking. Hinata seeing the anger in Sasuke started giving him lessons on how to control his anger by telling him about what she had to deal with before, when the Hyuuga clan was meaner. They talked for around a month straight and they decided to start dating. They hit it off almost instantaneously and they compliment each other perfectly.

"Oh yea Sasuke? Well at least I try to do what I want even if I get hit; at least I'm not whipped like you are. You hear one word of Hinata needs something and your gone in a flash." Naruto smirked at his friend who stopped laughing and gave him an annoyed look.

"What's wrong with helping your pregnant wife, Naruto?" Sasuke said each of them getting in each other's face. Naruto was not having this today Sakura kept him up all night reading to him stuff from her medical book about having a baby, which he replied with, "its like 9 months away Sakura do we have to talk about this now?" to which he was hit multiple times and made to listen to the entire book.

"Even when she wasn't pregnant you still waddled over to her like a little puppy when she called you." Naruto stated. Getting right back in Sasuke's face.

"SO DID YOU!" Sasuke yelled.

"NO I DID NOT!" Naruto yelled back.

"QUIET YOU IDIOTS!" Sakura yelled as she hit them both on the head. Small bumps appeared on their heads as both Naruto and Sasuke held their now pulsing heads. Apparently Sakura had just walked out of Tsunade's office and heard the two idiots fighting and had to put a stop to it.

"Sakuraaaa, why did you do that?" Naruto whined at his wife, while he was rubbing his head and a small tear ran down his right eye. For some reason only Sakura ever hit Naruto, even the best of shinobi couldn't touch Naruto but he let her for some reason. Sasuke was a different story, it seems that whenever he's caught up dealing with Naruto he can't concentrate on anything else leaving him open to the attack that had just happened.

"Urgh, gorilla woman why did you have to do that?" Sasuke stated, instantly regretting what he said seeing Sakura's evil eye come out.

"I am not a gorilla thank you very much Sasuke, but surely Hinata will hear of your very disrespectful comment. Both of you need to stop yelling right now before I decide that you are better left in a body bag underneath 200 feet of Earth is that understood?" Sakura said calmly with a small smile on her face. Thus causing both of the full-grown men, and most powerful of the shinobi in the leaf, to sweat drop.

"Yes ma'am" Naruto and Sasuke both recited on queue as if they were both trained puppies.

"Good, and you better hurry to Tsunade's office she is getting very impatient." Sakura said smiling as she walked up to Naruto and kissed him before walking away smiling and waving. Thus leaving a happily dazed Naruto waving back.

"Ugh Naruto, your wife is a demon I feel sorry for you." Sasuke said as they both turned back to Tsunade's door.

"I know, but I love her and I don't think it will ever stop." Naruto replied smirking like a grade schooler the whole time. Sasuke smirked at Narutos comment.

"I feel the same about Hinata." Sasuke said. Then Naruto opened the door to the Hokage's office. The old familiar building had been built in the exact same way as the one before it down to the last detail, thus Tsunade was sitting at her Mahogany desk with her hands folded on her chin. She raised an eyebrow as they came in.

"Well hello there boys. How is the old ball and chain treating you?" Tsunade said laughing at her own joke. The two were surprised to see that Tsunade seemed undeniably cheerful even though there were 3 mounds of paperwork sitting on the right side of her desk. Naruto slowly realized why she was so happy and his sweat dropped.

"They didn't…. did they?" Naruto asked with a nervous smile. Naruto had been waiting for this day his whole life but he didn't think that she would do this to him, or at least hadn't expected this much paperwork to be involved.

"Yes they did and they said as your first item on your list as they new hokage you get to finish all the paperwork I don't want to do." Lady Tsunade smiled a devilish smile at the new young Hokage. She had been waiting to give away this position to him since the moment she met him however she couldn't help but give him a hard time and give herself some free time because of it. "Come here Naruto you need to sign this one form and then you get the job, the office, and the paperwork." Naruto reluctantly signed his name at the bottom of the form and started to look at the seemingly endless amount of paperwork waiting for him. Sasuke burst into laughter until he remembered that he had been called too, which made him, freeze up and look in disbelief at a devilishly smiling Tsunade, looking at him. "Also Sasuke the board has decided to task you with becoming the leader of the police once more and as such you get to help Naruto with all of his duties as hokage, as such your new desk has been placed to the right of Narutos, have fun you two." Said Tsunade as she made her way to the door and closed it behind her as she walked out. They heard her saying something about getting a drink for the first time in a few days and how she wasn't going to stop. Both of them sweat dropped as they looked at their new paperwork to be done.

"Well we better get this done." Naruto said, sighing as he picked a piece of paper of the top of the mountain. Sasuke nodded and they sat down and slowly started to make a dent on the mountain of paperwork.

However all was not jokes and happiness out in Spirit forest in the country of the land of the Samurai a small baby had been abandoned. It lay in a small basket at the edge of the forest, obviously placed so that some animal would come and eat it. Soon a group of wolves, larger than most wolves, came slowly toward the small child. The biggest of the wolves that lead the pack slowly made its way around the basket to see the small Childs face. The small child was a boy with curly hair as green as the grass and the leaves that spread throughout the forest. The largest wolf turned to the wolf that was sitting to the right of the basket.

"Chesmu, hurry and call a meeting of the elders. We are taking this one in as one of our own." The wolves looked at her as if she were crazy however the Grey wolf Chesmu moved to speak.

"My lady, forgive me for speaking in such a way, but are you crazy? Who would ever take care of this human? We cannot even begin to understand their race and what if it brings destruction to our clan?" Chesmu said imparting his wisdom upon the Large White wolf that stood in front of the basket looking down at the small human child. The white wolf looked over at Chesmu with determination and fire in her eyes.

"I, Lady Hehewuti your Clan Leader, will take care of this child as my own. I from here on out will make sure that this child is trained like our kind and comes to become one with us. He will hunt with us, sleep with us, talk with us, and most of all come to love the forest like his kind should." The other wolves including Chesmu bowed to Hehewuti, acknowledging that her word is their law. Yet Chesmu stood up and asked another question one that Hehewuti was not expecting.

"Well then my lady, you get the honor of naming the young one. What shall he be called?" Chesmu questioned. This stopped Hehewuti in her tracks, she had been so gung-ho about the whole thing that she had forgotten to make a name for the young one. She quickly regained her composure and thought of a suitable name. About 20 seconds later Hehewuti smiled and looked at the child once more.

"We shall train you young one and you will fight with spirit and be strong, thus I have given you the name Hania which means spirit warrior." Thus Hehewuti picked up the basket with her nose and the Wolves retreated the way they came into the woods as the cold night air stung their bodies and the darkness soon swallowed them up until they were out of sight.


	2. Chapter 2

**Ok I am back again with another chapter, sorry for the slow start on the story however I think that the beginning is tremendously important for showing the timeline of the story and where and how all of the characters have arrived at their current positions.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or any of its characters.**

_Chapter 2: The Legend of the Child_

10 years later from the day that Naruto Namikaze took the Hokage seat in the village hidden in the leaves, we find ourselves at the edge of the forest where the small boy was found by the spirit wolves. A small wagon with people from the land of the samurai was traveling along the dirt road trying to take some things to trade with the next town. They came to a fork in the road.

"Billy! Get out here boy! We have to figure out the faster way to Sfenville." Said a burly 45-year-old man with a balding head with grey hair on the outline, 2 huge grey bushy eyebrows, and a big bushy mustache. A young man about the age of 15 jumped off the back of the cart and headed toward his father in the front. The man was around 5'5" with lanky arms and really skinny. His hair was blond and was cut short and sloppy, showing that he did it himself and wasn't the best of barbers. He wore a vanilla white tunic with light brown Locksley pants, and leather boots. They were traders and fairly well off traders at that.

"Dad there is no other way to go, this road on the right leads to the long way around and the left is that road we were hearing about that had the forest that houses the spirit kid protecting the forest." The young man said.

"I don't care what some stupid, crybaby little child said back at the last caravan's convention. Just because some little kid thinks that he can protect a little forest doesn't mean he can do anything about it, it was probably just a hallucination." The father blurted out; with a smug little grin on his face thinking he was so powerful. "Lets just cut through here so we can have ourselves a nice little breakfast before we begin our sales tonight." The old man chuckled a little as his big belly jiggled before his deep laugh.

"What ever dad lets just get this over with then." The boy said as they walked toward the forest with the wagon in tow. As they got nearer and nearer to the forest the frigid air got colder and heavier, and a mist slowly settled in making it steadily harder to see clearly. The forest looked eerie and dark compared to when they saw it before from a distance. "Dad I think we made a huge mistake." The young blond gulped.

"What ever could you mean son? Were almost to the village and then we can eat and sell to our hearts content." Said the balding old man to his son in a fit of chuckles.

"Well… Look up into the tree and you will see what I mean." The son said still looking up into the trees at a branch in the middle where a cloaked figure that wore a white square mask with two square holes for the eyes, a small slit for a mouth, and a few moon phases carved into the mask in a semi circle around the top of the eyes. The words were painted in a golden color. His cloak was long and white, with a large green pentagram with a circle around it on the back of the cloak. Also there was a crescent moon painted in the same green on the left front part of the cloak, and there was a thick line of the same green lining the bottom of the cloak. The masked figure had a bow in his hand with an arrow on the string waiting to be drawn if the two made another step.

"This is not your land to trespass on humans, leave before I have to get nasty with you." The masked man said. The two humans turned around putting their hands behind the back of their head and started to walk away.

"Guess we are not going that way today huh?" said the father.

"Nope, doesn't look very likely." Replied the son. When the two and their wagon were out of sight the masked figure removed his mask revealing a kid around the age of 10. He had long green curly hair and brown eyes. The figure smirked at the fact that they had left once again. Due to his actions he believed that the wolf pack would be safe this year again, little did he know that his actions were causing problems in the land of the samurai thus gaining him notoriety and possible actions were thought of to deal with the problem. The young man dashed from branch to branch further into the forest. Once he got about 30 yards into the forest the fog all but vanished and the temperature raised enough for a person to consider it to be spring when on the outside it was obviously winter. This is the forest of the spirit wolves and has been for many years. The boy suddenly dashed onto the ground and sprinted as fast as he could on all 4 legs and jumped when he reached a small stick on the forest floor that was marked with the wolf symbol. The mirage placed around the village lifted for him as he cleared the large pit with huge spikes surrounding the village. He landed on his hands and feet not even breaking a sweat at the stunts he had performed.

"Hania, there you are," Hehewuti said to the young man. "I certainly hope you weren't messing around with those travelers again. You know what comes about if you mess around with the villagers too much, they will come and try to get rid of their problems." Hehewuti was mad, almost furious. None of the other cubs had ever given her as much trouble as her adopted human kid had. Hehewuti did not like the humans that lived on the outside of the forest, they were unkind and they were quick to kill things that they did not understand. Hehewuti sighed seeing the determination in Hania's eyes.

"Mother fret not, I will make sure that anyone who enters this forest gets a quick death and a bed of dirt." Hania spouted with pride. Hehewuti just shook her head but couldn't help getting a small smile to creep across her face.

"Then you must be ready to take the coming of age ceremony." Hehewuti said snickering to herself a bit that this test will finally teach him how to be more cautious of himself and to worry about things a bit more. However what Hehewuti did not plan on was how the ceremony would turn out. "You are required to meet up at the shrine in an hour and be ready to partake in the most painstaking tests of your life up to this point." Hehewuti explained, then turned around and walked back toward her cave to get ready for her own part in the ceremony.

"Finally I can pass this stupid test, be the first one in the history of the clan to overcome all of the trials, and to gain the title of protector of the forest." This was the young ones dream. To protect his loved ones at the cost of his own life, and to make sure that his clan thrived long after his demise. The hour passed quickly as the young one made his way around town gathering the supplies he needed to partake in the challenge. Most of the challengers went into the tests without any supplies however being the smart, adaptable human he was he believed that it would be better to have the supplies than to need them later and not have them. With his bow on his back and his 14 knives in holsters spread in different places on his clothing, he made his way to the shrine by walking up the ancient moss ridden stone steps. His anticipation and nervousness peaked when he reached the top of the shrine and found the whole village waiting for him and his trial.

"Welcome young one." Hehewuti exclaimed. Being the lady of the village made her play the role of the test giver in the village, she was used to giving the others the test but certainly not her own son. "We are gathered here today to witness the coming of age of our young brethren. Through these trials he will either prove himself amongst the clan as one of us, or become an outcast due to his cowardice." Each word that she said reminded her of many of wolves that had been outcast because of their reluctance to take the trials and therefore a lot of lives were ended. However many that took the trials ended up with a cold bloody grave. Not many survived the first trial but each year more and more cubs passed the first trial. "Step forward young competitor. This is your amulet it will open 1 door after your first trial is complete you will gain another amulet that will lead you to the second trial, after that you shall receive another amulet and be allowed to proceed to the third and final trial. Do you understand this?" Hehewuti was looking more and more nervous to Hania. Hania just smiled his biggest smile at the old wolf and said 4 simple words that lit up her soul.

"I'll be fine mom." Hania now with a determined look in his eyes took the amulet from his mother and made his way to the stone doorway where inlaid in the rock was an indentation of the exact same amulet that Hania was holding. Once placed inside of the indentation the door opened slowly.

"This is the test of agility, good luck." His mother said and every one of the villagers cheered hoping that this young man would make it through to the second trial. Hania pushed off at break neck speed down the square corridor lined with stone carvings. As he reached the middle of the first long hallway he felt a pressure plate lower under his foot. Seeing the indentations on the side of the wall that looked like poison arrow traps he slid underneath the arrows as he lay completely flat on his back, still moving at a fast speed. He turned a corner to his right and came upon a huge room with steps leading down the left side and a giant maze with multiple traps lining the center and the top of the maze. Learning how to follow your sense of direction was also one of the things that one needed to know to pass this trial, thus seeing that the exit was close to the northern side Hania used his sense of direction to guess the correct ways dodging pitfalls, and other traps along the way. Reaching the end of the maze he had only a minute left before the door to the amulet room would close and then he would have lost the trial he got on all fours and started bursting into a fit of speed up the stone steps leading to the amulet room. He reached the final hallway that had a very long pitfall right in the middle and the amulet room was all the way at the end. He only had 30 seconds so he dashed as fast as he could toward the middle only to kick off to the left-side wall. There he placed his feet on the wall and kicked off to the right wall, then the left again and landed with one more jump on the other side of the long gap. He slid under the closing stone door of the amulet room just in time. The room had a small statue of a wolf sitting in the middle of the room and around its neck laid a single amulet. The amulet fit perfectly on the door in the back of the room and the door shifted upward allowing the young challenger entrance into the arena where the second trial would take place.

The second trial was a trial given by the leader of the clan where a sparring partner would be picked for the challenger and they would fight, the challenger for their place in the pack, and the sparring partner would get honor if they won. Hania had to fight his old friend Chesmu. "I see that you happen to have to fight me, Chesmu just be careful not to hurt your back now you old geezer." Hania said with a smirk as Chesmu just shook his head chuckling to himself.

"You are 100 years too young to be talking to me like that boy." Chesmu stated, then he spat at the ground in front of the young challenger. "Come at me if you have the guts young one. Hania was not your typical fighter from the age of two he was pushed to learn how to walk and by age 4 he was expected to learn how to hunt. The harsh training by the wolves made this young child an exceptionally skilled fighter who only got stronger when he lost. However this child hadn't lost a sparring match in over a year. The boy pushed off lunging at the large brown wolf, which swiped at him with ease expecting to knock the boy away. However the boy kicked right when he saw the attack incoming placing him into a position to the right of the wolf. Seeing an opening Hania charged in fist ready to strike only to meet the brown wolfs paw and another paw swiping at his face. It connected cleanly sending the young male flying into the wall of the arena. Everyone cringed at the brutality of the hit. However Hania just wiped the blood from the side of his mouth, smiled, and said, "I'm just getting warmed up!" This time the wolf dashed at the young boy.

"I'm going to make you pay for your idiotic comment at the beginning Hania!" Chesmu yelled. Suddenly Hania threw two knives at his target which Chesmu easily swiped away however Chesmu underestimated Hania and hadn't noticed him dash after his knives only to slide under his swipe as the knives were knocked away leaving him in a perfect position to smash the belly of Chesmu. Chesmu's eyes shot open as he tried to jump upwards to avoid the blow, however Hania planted his feet and jumped upwards at a speed that was faster than Chesmu's as Hania landed a punch that knocked the wind out of Chesmu. Then Hania got beside the wolf still in the air and swung a kick down on the head of Chesmu sending him barreling straight into the ground. The ground shattered from Chesmu landing so hard on the stone. When Chesmu didn't get up the crowd was stunned. Chesmu was one of the most powerful wolves in the clan and yet the battle had been ended so quickly. Nobody realized that Hania had gotten lucky due to the fact that Chesmu thought he was weaker and hadn't expected that move he had done. The crowd erupted into howl's, which meant that they were cheering for him.

"Congratulations on becoming one of the clan Hania, you know may have the third amulet and the right to ender the trial of deception, please choose your door so that you may start the final trial." Hehewuti was smiling at this no one made it past this trial because there was no winning this trial once you passed one of those doors it led you down a constant series of doors that lead no where and when you finally learned to give up and accept that some things could not be overcome then a door would open that allowed you the way out however you did not then defeat the trial you just accepted defeat. However Hania kept looking from the doors to the middle of the arena. "What? Do you want to fight again?" said Hehewuti with a smirk. The other wolves chuckled to themselves. Hania smiled, "Oh that cant be good." Hehewuti thought.

"Well since this is a trial of deception and all of the doors are blatantly obvious I will not be deceived by this test." Hania said. "I can't believe that no one has beaten this trial in the history of the clan. I choose to put this amulet in the slot on the middle of the giant emblem on the middle of the arena." The wolves' eyes shot open seeing what Hania was talking about. Right in the middle of the arena there was a small indentation that fit the amulet perfectly. As soon as Hania placed the amulet into the center gears could be heard turning and a small shrine lifted out of the ground that the amulet was placed on. Inside the small circular shrine was a statue of the wolf god holding two items on a marble counter. They were two weapons that seemed to be a gift from the wolf god. There was a sickle that had an ivory handle with an ancient language carved into its ivory surface. The blade was sharp and true and seemed very strong, it had a crescent moon carved into the middle of each side of the sickle thus marking the weapon as the lunar gods. The other weapon was a short sword that had ancient writing going down the blade and crescent moon carved into the bottom of the handle. Once Hania took the two weapons a light shot out of the statues eyes and entered into Hania's eyes. Hania looked as if he was being possessed due to his violent shaking from the light. However the light soon stopped and a crescent moon appeared engraved on the middle of his forehead. The scratch over his right eye that he had obtained from the fight with Chesmu healed too quickly for it to be natural. Hania held up the two weapons to the sky while looking at his clan. They erupted into cheers all climbing down from the stands to see and congratulate their new protector of the forest. That night the spirit wolf clan partied from night to dawn. All was well in the spirit forest. However not all was well back in the leaf village.

"NARUTO!" Sakura yelled, you could hear her from a mile away and even if you could start to run you wouldn't get far so Naruto just decided to take the pain and stay where he was.

"Yes dear?" Naruto asked with hope in his voice that she wasn't really mad, just kind of mad.

"Were you not supposed to watch your daughter today?" Sakura asked with annoyance in her voice. She was not happy, she had spent all day listening to whining men and women crying about a small scrape or a stomach ache and she just couldn't handle any more bull crap today. "If you don't get outside and play with your daughter now I will be forced to pulverize you into dust, DO I MAKE MYSELF CLEAR?" Sakura projected her evil aura towards the guilty Naruto. Naruto felt himself shrink in size.

"Yes ma'am!" Naruto said bolting out the door to the back yard of the Namikaze estate to go play with his 9-year-old girl Rose. Naruto sighed, looks like he wont be getting a break from anything anytime soon. Already 32 and he is still behind in his paperwork that sat in the Hokage office. Naruto saw his daughter and rushed to her only to almost get punched in the face.

"Now now Rose, is that any way to treat your father?" Rose just laughed and smirked at her father. "It's the way id greet any good shinobi, father." Naruto smiled at her, his little girl was growing up. They sparred for a while until dinner was ready. They both entered the kitchen where the Naruto, Sakura, and their daughter Rose ate in bliss. Once Sakura went to bed Naruto and Sakura retired to their bedroom. As Sakura got into her nightgown and laid on the bed Naruto flashed over on top of her with a smug smile on his lips. Sakura smiled at him as a blush appeared on her cheeks. They kissed each other slowly, as Naruto pulled away his lips brushed against hers as he said a few simple words that meant the world to Sakura. "I love you." He said. She said it back and after a few more fevered kisses the couple went to bed. All was good in the village hidden in the leaves, at least for now. One clan partied it up in the night sky and another slept through it but all knew on that night that the world was in perfect harmony.


End file.
